


Relish

by MrMissMrsRandom



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Genre: Graphic descriptions of Dark Magic, M/M, Sprinklings of World-Building, The Dandelion Gang, implied nsfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:13:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23316682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrMissMrsRandom/pseuds/MrMissMrsRandom
Summary: Troude knew what he needed to be for the Dandelion Gang, just like he knew who he needed to be for Perne. Still, there were times he felt selfish.
Relationships: Troude/Perne
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Relish

The hideout of the Dandelion Gang is quiet that night. Only the sound of the night breeze from trees of Dakia Forest filled the silence. It was peaceful in many ways that Troude’s life was not. To have small moments like this, when one might not get another chance. In that way, he would consider himself a lucky man, even though he was lucky in several others. 

The night’s stillness was encroached upon soon after. However, it did not come from where Troude had anticipated.

“Is he back yet?” Laylea asked, scuffing her sandaled feet as she walked forward, gathering her dance silks around her to try and keep out the chill. 

Troude shook his head. “I’d sound the alarm if he was. Worried that the job went south?”

“Of course not.” Laylea snorted. She was the eldest of the dancers that Perne convinced to go against the brothel. “That snake could charm his way out of a locked chest. You?”

Troude shook his head. “He hasn’t let me down so far.”

“Mm,” Laylea turned back to walk into the tunnel system, surely returning to her room. “Good night then, Troude.” 

“Night, kid.” Because, from Troude’s perspective, she was still a kid, even if she was a few years older than Lara. Laylea and the other dancers were key to how they infiltrated noble houses. One or a pair would go to a fancy dinner to provide entertainment while also casing the place. All of them were trained to be skilled thieves and lockpicks by Perne. Troude still scoffed when Perne would brag about his ‘girls’ out in public. They were his students, not slaves.

Well, most of them. He had tried to convince him to let Tina go. To find her sister or to just die like the rest on the open road, but he would have none of it. Especially since he learned of her skills with the Thief Staff. 

_ “Just a little longer. Just a bit more, then I’ll try to find her sister.” _

Perne always spoke like that, when he knew Troude wasn’t comfortable with a plan. 

The calm night breeze broke into a furious clang of bells. Someone tripped the alarm. 

* * *

Troude had heard what the Loptous cult could do to people, but he had never seen it first hand. 

The young man’s hair was matted from sweat, hiding most of his face. His clothes were torn as if ripped apart by rabid teeth. Where there should be human skin there were seeping pools of sludge running out. When he helped Perne carry him toward the makeshift infirmary, Troude felt his gloves sizzle when he touched it. Despite all this, he could still hear labored breathing and a dull moan of pain. 

“Wake up the girl!” Perne barked at one of the girls who came to see what occurred. “Come back here with her and with the strongest staff we got, now!” 

Roisin squeaked in fear seeing the cursed man but quickly did as she was told, coming with Tina in tow, now holding a Mend Staff. Perne was wildly pacing as Troude stripped the man of his ruined clothes. 

“Thank you, Sisi,” Troude said, keeping his tone even. “I need you to grab the extra set of gloves from the cupboard on the left of the bed. Wake up one of the men and bury these clothes as far into the forest as you can. If he complains, tell him he’ll have to answer to me.” 

“Y-yes, Mister Troude.” Roisin paid one more nervous look to Tina, before grabbing the clothes and keeping them at arm’s length away from her. 

Perne, however, was not so well in convincing Tina. Her arms were shaking, looking between Perne and the dying man, eyes wide with fear.

“Oi! Can’t you see he’s in pain?! You’re the only one here who knows how to do something, you daft girl!” 

“B-but I’ve never--!”

“Tina,” Troude leaned forward, his eyes looking into hers. “Your sister is a holy woman, right?”

“...Mm-hm.” 

“You’ve seen her heal others before from worse scrapes than this, haven’t you?”

“I-... maybe…”

“Good. What we need you to do is think about what she did, and try to channel that into your spell. Call on the Earth Mother for aid, if you need to.”

Tina blinked back the tears she had started, before nodding. She then kneeled beside the man, resting the bottom of her staff to the ground. 

_ “O holy Ethnia, Mother of the Earth. Heed this plea: purify this wayward soul, so that he may once again travel between light and shadow.”  _

Suddenly, the Mend Staff glowed, and flowers began to grow rapidly from the earth around the cot, only to quickly shrivel, die, and turn to dust. Yet, when the glow eased, the sludge was gone, leaving deep, but clean, gashes across the man’s body. 

Troude gave Tina’s shoulder a quick pat. “Bang-up job there.”

“It wasn’t me, it was the Earth Mother,” Tina said, voice far away, as if in a trance. Troude looked into her eyes to see they took on an eerie light. After another moment, however, she quickly came to her senses, looking at the injuries. “Ah, he needs to be bandaged up, quickly!” 

Other members of the gang pile into the infirmary to assist, and when Troude looked up, he found that Perne was gone. Troude let out a small sigh before waving to catch Laylea’s attention. He gestured to go out, and she simply waved him off. Things were handled there for now. The young man made it out of the woods safely. 

Troude nodded, re-entering the tunnels. He knew where he would find him. 

* * *

Perne was sitting on a stool just outside their personal area of the hideout. When he saw Troude, he gave his usual grin. 

“Haha, sorry about that. Guess I’m still a wimp when it comes to the injured. It’s why these days I try to give my enemies a quick slit and split--”

“Let me see your hands,” Troude said, kneeling down beside him. 

“Only if I can see yours.” Perne reached out, but Troude gently grabbed his wrist.

“Your fingers are burned,” Troude said, lifting them up to look more closely.

“Only a little. I dunked them in water, and the stinging stopped. Only thing left to do is to watch them blister for a few days.” Perne easily pulled his hand free from Troude’s grip, then peeled off his gloves. “Well, look at these. Smoother than some noble broad’s hands, these are.” 

He leaned down to kiss each of Troude’s knuckles. 

“Don’t feel ashamed for how you acted,” Troude said. “A weaker man would have left him to die.” 

“A more practical man, you mean. My bleeding heart will get us into trouble, someday.”

Yet, Troude reached up and cupped Perne’s cheek. “That bleeding heart saved me. I’ll do my best to protect it.”

“Hah, aren’t you all for flattery tonight.” Perne sighed, but still leaned into the touch. They spent a moment like that, before Perne got to his feet, pulling at Troude’s belt so he would follow him up and into their personal area, where they wouldn’t be disturbed. 

Once they let the thick piece of rug fall down, they helped each other undress, quickly and efficiently. Just like they had done many times before this. So they would, if the Earth Mother allowed, many times after. 

“You know, I did almost die from this escapade,” Perne leaned forward, grabbing Troude by the hips to pull their bodies closer. “Shouldn’t we celebrate?” 

“You never stop, do you?” Troude sighed, before coming in for a kiss. “No wonder there are rumors of your lechery from here to Tahra.” 

Perne responded with a deep kiss, then a bite to his lip, only pulling back just before he broke the skin. His grin was wide and wicked. “Nah, my blood only gets going for stone-faced old men.” 

“I’m only three years old than you.”

“Olllllddd.” 

But then Troude kissed him again, on the mouth, and later many other places that no one else knew as intimately but himself, and Perne repaid the favor in turn. 

Wasn’t that the best you could expect from an honest thief? 

* * *

It was hard to tell when the day came in the hideout, but Troude had grown used to his body waking up just before dawn, even if he couldn’t see the sun. A stray piece of his old life as a farmer’s son before that whole life went up in smoke. 

Perne’s arm was wrapped around his shoulder, keeping him firmly in place, their bodies slotted together to keep warm under the blanket. 

Troude leaned his head back against the pillow, watching the slight twitches and shifts of his partner’s eyelashes as he continued to dream.

He promised to follow Perne wherever he went. Whether it be to glory or to ruin. But times like this, in the quiet of this piece of life that they had carved out, is what he would relish through all the rest. 

**Author's Note:**

> Roisin: Pronounced “Rosheen,” meaning “little rose.” “Sisi” is pronounced “Shishi.”
> 
> Ethnia: Though Tailtiu and Bloom’s sister and Miranda’s mother are also called Ethnia, Ethnia is the name for the Earth Goddess of the Thracian Peninsula and Jugdral as a whole. She is the counterpart to Yudu, the Sky God. Ethnia and Yudu were the predominant gods before Loptous came to the land, and I like to think people not among the nobility or the Bragi (originally Maera/Maira) Faithful still follow the old gods.


End file.
